1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motorcycle and more particularly to a motorcycle on which an enclosed battery is mounted.
2. Description of Background Information
In an existing battery mounted on a motorcycle, water contained in electrolyte is electrolyzed during overcharging and turned into oxygen gas at positive plates and into hydrogen gas at negative plates. Since the evaporation of the thus generated gases causes a reduction of the quantity of the electrolyte, the replenishment of distilled water or the like is required. In addition, due to the evolution of antimony (Sb) from the plate material, a local battery is formed and an internal discharge takes place. Therefore an additional charging is required after a nonuse of a long time. With these reasons, the location for installing the battery on a body frame of the motorcycle is limited to such a location that allows an easy access for the maintenance. Moreover, due to the necessity of providing a vent hole for exhausting the oxygen gas and the hydrogen gas respectively generated at the positive plates and at the negative plates, it was impossible to adopt a completely enclosed construction. If the battery is placed at a slant or laid sideways, the electrolyte leaks. Therefore the state of the installation of the battery in the body frame was restricted to a normal upright arrangement. Such restrictions of the location of installation and the state of installation have been a hindrance to the reduction in size or the slimming of the body frame.
On the other hand, a maintenance-free battery of the enclosed type (referred to as enclosed battery hereinafter) has been developed to eliminate the need of the replenishment of water during a normal life of the battery. The enclosed battery generally has a closed type battery casing and there is much more freedom of setting as compared with the conventional open type battery.